Conversations with Kentucky Writers II

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In this sequel to Conversations with Kentucky Writers, L. Elisabeth Beattie brings together in-depth interviews with sixteen of the state's premiere wordsmiths.

This new volume offers the perspectives of poets, journalists, and scholars as they discuss their views on creativity, the teaching of writing, and the importance of Kentucky in their work. They talk frankly about how and why they do what they do. The writers speak for themselves, and their thoughts come alive on the page. Beattie's interviews reveal the allegiances and alliances among Kentucky writers that have shaped literary trends by bringing together people with shared interests, values, subjects, and styles.

The interviewees include authors who are captivated in other writers and in what they have to say about the process and craft of writing; educators who are interested in Kentucky writers and what their work reveals about the nature of creativity; and historians who are concerned with Kentucky's literary and cultural heritage. The interviews reveal patterns in Kentucky literature from mid-century to the millennium, as authors talk about how their sense of place has changed over the decades and reveal the ways in which the roots of Kentucky writing have produced a literary flowering at the century's end.

L. Elisabeth Beattie, associate professor of English at Elizabethtown Community College, is editor of Conversations with Kentucky Writers and Savory Memories.

Any reader would be charmed with their enthusiasm for and insights into the literature, folklore, and just plain people of the Bluegrass State. -- Arkansas Review

She’s an unobtrusive interviewer who nonetheless elicits much of interest from her writers. -- Arts and Letters

A rich collection of life stories and artistic insights, replete with family anecdotes, personal vignettes and frank accounts of how the writers began to develop their literary skills. -- Bowling Green Daily News

Introduces 16 more Kentucky wordsmiths, providing an intimate glimpse into their personalities, their careers, and their histories. -- Kentucky Living

They talk frankly about how and why they do what they do, discuss their views on the writing process and the importance of Kentucky to their work. -- Paintsville Herald